Los Pumas end losing streak with win over Italy
MATCH REPORT: Argentina ran out 37-16 winners over Italy on Saturday, ending a seven-match losing streak and condemning the Azzurri to another in a long line of Test defeats.
The Pumas ran in five tries at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo in Treviso to break their poor run of results against an Italy team that has now lost 16 straight Tests stretching back to the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Emiliano Boffelli added nine points with the boot for Argentina before replacement Nicolas Gonzalez also struck a penalty of his own.
Marcos Kremer and Juan Martin Gonzalez crossed to give Argentina a commanding 17-6 half-time lead, before Matias Moroni touched down almost straight after the break to leave the hosts reeling.
Italy briefly had hope thanks to a Stephen Varney try just after the break, converted by Paolo Garbisi, who then scored the last of his three penalties to make it 24-16 to the away side in the 50th minute.
However Santiago Cordero ran home soon after to add five points and from there Argentina cruised to victory, with Facundo Bosch adding the fifth five minutes from the end from a ruck after having had a similar try disallowed just moments before.
The scorers:
For Italy:
Try: Varney
Con: Garbisi
Pens: Garbisi 3
For Argentina
Tries: Kremer, Gonzalez, Moroni, Cordero, Bosch
Cons: Boffelli 3
Pens: Boffelli, Sanchez
Teams:
Italy: 15 Matteo Minozzi, 14 Edoardo Padovani, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Luca Morisi, 11 Montanna Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Stephen Varney, 8 Giovanni Licata, 7 Michele Lamaro (captain), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 David Sisi, 4 Niccolo Cannone, 3 Marco Riccioni, 2 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 1 Ivan Nemer.
Replacements: 16 Luca Bigi, 17 Danilo Fischetti, 18 Pietro Ceccarelli, 19 Marco Fuser, 20 Federico Ruzza, 21 Giovanni Pettinelli, 22 Alessandro Fusco, 23 Federico Mori.
Argentina: 15 Emiliano Boffelli, 14 Santiago Cordero, 13 Matias Moroni, 12 Jeronimo de la Fuente, 11 Mateo Carreras, 10 Santiago Carreras, 9 Tomas Cubelli, 8 Facundo Isa, 7 Juan Martin Gonzalez, 6 Pablo Matera, 5 Tomas Lavanini, 4 Marcos Kremer, 3 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 2 Julian Montoya (captain), 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Facundo Bosch, 17 Ignacio Calles, 18 Santiago Medrano, 19 Lucas Paulos, 20 Santiago Grondona, 21 Gonzalo Bertranou, 22 Nicolas Sanchez, 23 Lucio Cinti.
Referee: James Doleman (New Zealand)
Assistant referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand), Ben Blain (Scotland)
TMO: Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
